…and sitting with harlots

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

5/31/06, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 8:39 PM CET

The Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and Commission President José Manuel Barroso had a meeting on Tuesday with leaders of world religions for a discussion on "fundamental rights and mutual respect".

Rarely have so many beards and black gowns been assembled round a Commission table.

The Dalai Lama stood out because he has no beard and wore a more colourful dress. The occasion was remarkable also for an unusual question posed during a press conference/photo call.

"Is this," asked a Brussels journalist, "the realisation of what the apostle John saw and wrote down in Chapter 17 [of the Book of Revelation]: 'the great harlot who sits on many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and I saw the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints.'?"

To Entre Nous's great disappointment, the former prime minister of Portugal answered (with an uncharacteristic degree of hesitancy): "I am not going to make a theological comment. I am not competent for that..."

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …